Center is my biggest concern going into next season. Zanna will be gone, the only center on the roster is glass kneed Uchebo, the only power forwards on the roster are Young and Randall, no PFs have been recruited, and the only center is Shaquille Doorson, who is considered a project. Pitt's a donut team right now.

I think the only difference is that fans of Pitt BB have grown spoiled with 25 win seasons and Sweet 16 appearances. Fair or not, until they make a Final Four, its always going to be "yes they are successful, but..."

And to be clear, there is no way I would ever can Dixon, though I know many disagree.

slappybrown wrote:I think the only difference is that fans of Pitt BB have grown spoiled with 25 win seasons and Sweet 16 appearances. Fair or not, until they make a Final Four, its always going to be "yes they are successful, but..."

And to be clear, there is no way I would ever can Dixon, though I know many disagree.

I think that's a fair analysis.

Pitt BB fans have become spoiled. I only wish I could say the same thing about my teams fans.

pfim wrote:Well, Pitt hasn't had a win against the RPI top 50 yet. So the team may be good, but their record is inflated quite a bit.

inflated? Nah. just better than the sludge that they have played so far.

pitt fans (and cuse fans for that matter) are used to playing a grinder of a schedule each year. they arent used to playing a bunch of soff teams, then having 3 or 4 big games a year. pitt has taken care of bidness so far this year, but their performance against the top 50 teams is just a confirmation that they are good...certainly more than average....but not good enough to be taken seriously in march.

slappybrown wrote:I think the only difference is that fans of Pitt BB have grown spoiled with 25 win seasons and Sweet 16 appearances. Fair or not, until they make a Final Four, its always going to be "yes they are successful, but..."

And to be clear, there is no way I would ever can Dixon, though I know many disagree.

As opposed to WVU fans who have seen a final four, more regional finals, and more sweet 16s in the last 10 years than Pitt?

slappybrown wrote:I think the only difference is that fans of Pitt BB have grown spoiled with 25 win seasons and Sweet 16 appearances. Fair or not, until they make a Final Four, its always going to be "yes they are successful, but..."

And to be clear, there is no way I would ever can Dixon, though I know many disagree.

As opposed to WVU fans who have seen a final four, more regional finals, and more sweet 16s in the last 10 years than Pitt?

But have they seen more implosions to worse-seeded teams in the tourney?

Rough game for Lamar Patterson and James Robinson. Horrendous shooting from Patterson. Robinson with 2 assists, 1 turnover, and was 0 for 5 from the floor. Way to contribute. Pitt sucks during the final two minutes of a game. I don't know what kind of coaching strategy it is to have crappy possessions and then throw up terrible shots just so you can run the clock down, but its a bad one.

Dickie Dunn wrote:Rough game for Lamar Patterson and James Robinson. Horrendous shooting from Patterson. Robinson with 2 assists, 1 turnover, and was 0 for 5 from the floor. Way to contribute. Pitt sucks during the final two minutes of a game. I don't know what kind of coaching strategy it is to have crappy possessions and then throw up terrible shots just so you can run the clock down, but its a bad one.

They've sucked at these sorts of things during the Dixon era. I'm sure it's just a coincidence. The exception is when Dixon has an irrationally confident PG who is taking the shot no matter what (Fields, Krauser) but makes it often enough that you don't complain.

pfim wrote:Well, Pitt hasn't had a win against the RPI top 50 yet. So the team may be good, but their record is inflated quite a bit.

inflated? Nah. just better than the sludge that they have played so far.

pitt fans (and cuse fans for that matter) are used to playing a grinder of a schedule each year. they arent used to playing a bunch of soff teams, then having 3 or 4 big games a year. pitt has taken care of bidness so far this year, but their performance against the top 50 teams is just a confirmation that they are good...certainly more than average....but not good enough to be taken seriously in march.

Well I stand by it. The record is inflated by the weak competition, this isn't a top 25 team yet nor a team to be feared in March.

Dickie Dunn wrote:Rough game for Lamar Patterson and James Robinson. Horrendous shooting from Patterson. Robinson with 2 assists, 1 turnover, and was 0 for 5 from the floor. Way to contribute. Pitt sucks during the final two minutes of a game. I don't know what kind of coaching strategy it is to have crappy possessions and then throw up terrible shots just so you can run the clock down, but its a bad one.

It isn't a strategy, it's confirmation that the team isn't very good. They have one decent offensive set and rely on getting down the floor quickly to generate offense. They're mediocre/poor in the half court offense, and the 3-4 timeouts Dixon took with 20 seconds left on the shot clock is a symptom of that.